When Miki returned, I decided it was time to start. If the Guild Master managed to conjure up any more potions later, that was fine too, but this was more than enough for me. I made sure to Refresh myself, find a comfortable position, and then pull out the fairy dust. I used Create Waters of Life, and soon a steady stream of water was flowing out of my hand. I had done this many times in the past, so it was very familiar to me.
With White Mage, Basic Mage, and Hero all equipped, my status was looking pretty nice. The water was at least twice as strong now as it was when I first cast it in the dungeon. The Water Control spell didn't hurt either. It allowed me to get a feel for the water falling and a sense of how much was under me. I increased my mana output until I had a good amount of water flowing. I wanted to get the most out of this spell, and that meant managing between speed and mana consumption.
I could produce a small trickle almost indefinitely, but I would pass out from boredom or sleep deprivation long before I filled any part of the well. I could also create a flash flood downpour of water, using all of my mana in a minute, but then I'd be out a pinch of fairy dust and I'd need to recast once I recovered. The idea was enough to empty my mana reserves in about six hours. I reckoned that was about the max I'd be able to cast. If I felt like I could keep going after that, then I'd depend on mana potions.
Actually, this turned out to be really good practice in mana control and figuring out exactly how much mana I had to cast spells took on a very quantifiable feeling as I adjusted my production of waters of life. At the moment, I was producing about the equivalent of four garden hoses at once. Then again, a hose took all day to fill a swimming pool, and I was probably trying to fill ten swimming pools worth of space underground.
At some point, while I worked, Lydia decided to snuggle up next to me. This encouraged Miki to do the same. Celeste, noticing our position, ended up joining, using her full form as she took up all the remaining space. With the three girls snuggling with me, I thought this wasn't such a bad situation waiting after all.
As we lay there, snuggling outdoors, Astria came to realize no one was playing with her as she buzzed around. Seeing the pile of us, she cautiously came over. That's when she noticed the waters of life. Coming from my palm and falling into the dark hole in the ground. She grew excited and immediately started splashing through the stream.
"Hey! I'm still working on that!" I said as she started splashing the water everywhere.
Astria cocked her head at me, but then flew up to the water stream and held up her arms. To my surprise, the stream coming from my hand started to triple in amount. I also felt that the mana was more concentrated, much closer to the level of a spring's concentrated waters of life.
"Hah… you're making it come out faster! Awesome."
Astria seemed proud of herself. Celeste watched what Astria was doing, and then tried to replicate. Once again, the stream increased in speed and amount, as well as water purity, although not at the level that Astria had done. Perhaps this was because they both had Water Control and Create Water. They could feed into my spell.
Like that, for the next two days we spent every waking moment either resting or dumping fairy water. As time went, I realized the grove was starting to feel thicker in mana, and mana recovery, in fact, happened faster here. This allowed me to in turn produce more water, which added to the effect.
On the final day, Celeste had collapsed from exhaustion, and I was on my fiftieth mana potion and on my last leg. I was starting to think that maybe creating a spring from nothing was really just a pipe dream. That was when Astria suddenly started flying around the hole in the ground we had created. Suddenly, water started to jet up, and as Astria swirled around it, it turned into a beautiful shape before slamming down on the ground. Water began to overflow from the hole as more and more water bubbled up. I finally collapsed, laughing as water sprayed down on us.
I had never been to a real fairy spring. I suspected this wasn't quite at the level of a real one. However, it was something I had built with the girls together, so I was satisfied.
Now that this was out of the way, it was time to start planning our trip to the Capital.